(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to statistical compilation, and more particularly to statistical compilation in a communications network. 
(2) Description of the Related Art
In data communication systems or other data processing systems that involve a large number of statistics that have to be maintained, maintenance of the statistics can become a complicated task that consumes a relatively large amount of available resources in the system. For example, in a data communication system a number of parameters relating to data traffic must be maintained for billing purposes, network maintenance, and the like. Each of these statistics may be stored in a memory structure such that periodically the statistics can be retrieved and analyzed to generate billing information, perform network utilization studies, etc. Each time a particular statistic needs to be updated in the memory, the current value stored in the memory must be read, the modification to the value made, and the resulting value stored back into the memory.
Having to perform these statistical updates can consume a significant amount of the available resources of the data path processors within the communication network. This may interfere with the level of efficiency with which the data path processors perform the other functions which they are designed to perform, such as those associated with directing data traffic through the network. The degradation in efficiency becomes increasingly significant as traffic speeds and the number of statistics maintained increase.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for statistical compilation that reduces the resources required on the part of the function components in the system, such as data path processors in a communication network.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.